Press releases/Wikipedia Academies

St. Petersburg, FL - October 31, 2007 - The Wikimedia Foundation, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, announced today that it will host Wikipedia Academy workshops in various locations throughout South Africa on November 10 and 11, 2007. Co-hosted by South Africa-based nonprofit organization, iCommons, the goal of the Wikipedia Academies is to stimulate the growth of the local-language Wikipedias in South Africa.

"Wikipedia versions are currently available for only 250 of the world's 7,000 languages. Establishing Wikipedias in more African languages will enable speakers of those languages to more actively participate in the global exchange of knowledge. Additionally, it may, in a small way, help to preserve those languages," said Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. "I ask people to consider donating to our current fundraiser, so that we can do more of this important work."

Jimmy Wales will deliver a motivational keynote at the beginning of each Wikipedia Academy. Afterwards, attendees will be coached in how to edit Wikipedia through various intensive workshops. They will also have the opportunity to meet Ndesanjo Macha – considered the father of the Swahili Wikipedia – who will share his experiences in sustaining local language Wikipedias.

The first event will take place at CIDA City Campus – the first free university in South Africa – on Saturday, November 10. It will launch a series of Academies supported by local business and media, with an Afrikaans Wikipedia Academy workshop taking place Sunday, November 11.

Wikipedias in the South African languages are still fairly small. For example, the Afrikaans Wikipedia, which is the largest South African language Wikipedia, has slightly under 7,000 articles. Wikipedias in languages like Sesotho, Zulu, and Swati contain fewer than 100 entries each. Strengthening and growing the South African language Wikipedias will help preserve those languages, and the cultural knowledge of their speakers, for future generations.

Wikipedia Academy Program

Saturday, November 10

CIDA City Campus

54 Commissioner St.

Johannesburg

The Academy will run from 9am to 1pm, and will consist of an opening address by Jimmy Wales and Swahili Wikipedian Ndesanjo Macha; hands-on training by South African Wikipedians, and a discussion led by Wikipedia Germany’s Frank Schulenburg about the culture of contributing to Wikipedia.

Sunday, November 11

iCommons Offices at the Grace

54 Bath Avenue

Rosebank, Johannesburg

The workshop will run from 10am to 12.30pm with inputs from Lourens Cloete, Jimmy Wales and other Wikipedians. The workshop will look at challenges and opportunities for local language Wikipedias in South Africa, and develop a plan of action to grow these communities.

About us

About the Wikimedia Academy

"Wikipedia Academy" was invented in 2006 when a group of Wikipedians staged the first Academy in the prestigious Göttingen State and University Library, one of the largest libraries in Germany. The goal was to coach students and professors in how to contribute to the encyclopedia, in order to increase both the number of articles and to improve their quality. Over a period of two days, more than 100 academics and students were treated to Wiki workshops and lectures. As hoped for, the event had many positive effects on the German Wikipedia; one of the most notable being the recruitment of a Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Science, who went on to write more than 250 Wikipedia articles.

About Wikipedia

The goal of the Wikipedia project is to create free encyclopedias in all languages of the world. Anyone with Internet access is free to contribute by writing new articles and editing existing articles.

Wikipedia started in January 2001, and currently offers more than 34,000,000 articles in 288 languages. The largest Wikipedia is in English, with more than 4,500,000 articles; it's followed by the German and French editions, each of which contain more than 500,000 articles. Nine other language editions contain 100,000+ articles, and more than 100 other languages contain 1,000+ articles. Every month, new language editions launch.

Wikipedia is entirely created and maintained by a community of active volunteers. In 2004, Wikipedia won the Webby Award for "Community" and the Prix Ars Electronica's Golden Nica for "Digital Communities." Since the start of the project, more than 100,000 registered users have made at least ten edits each, and more than 3.4 million people have created accounts on the English Wikipedia alone.

About iCommons

Incubated by Creative Commons, iCommons is an organisation with a broad vision to develop a united global commons front by collaborating with open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities around the world.